


A Good Man

by Hopeful_Romantic



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:30:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeful_Romantic/pseuds/Hopeful_Romantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who is Lennier in the end? After the end of the series, Lennier is again visited by the Shade of Morden, offering him redemption.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Man

**Disclaimer:** I do not own B5 of course, The Great Maker does. No money was made from it, and no copyright infringement is intended. Any similarity to any other story not my own is coincidence.

 **Title:** A Good Man  
 **Rating:** PG, maybe PG-13 for violence and one swear word  
 **Timeline:** A about three or four months after the birth of David and Lennier's incident with Sheridan on their way to Minbar  
 **Genre:** Gen, character study(Lennier mostly)  
 **Warning:** Character Death  
 **Author's Note:** Story breaks indicated 

* * *

  


**_“Welcome back,”_ a** deep and cultured voice greeted Lennier as he sat up slowly in the unfamiliar bed that he was laying in.

The young Minbari looked around the small plain room, seeking the owner of the quiet voice that he was afraid he recognized. When Lennier saw the darkly handsome man, dressed in an elegant charcoal gray suit, he closed his eyes, as if in so doing, it would make the shadow man fade away.

 _“Still here,”_ Morden said quietly in an amused voice. _“It’s not as simple as all that Mr. Lennier.”_

With his eyes still closed, the former Anla’shok practically whispered, “Go away.”

_“That, Mr. Lennier, is easier said than done.”_

Finally, Lennier opened his eyes and looked directly into Morden’s dark ones. “Go away,” he said firmly.

_“I believe we spoke once about the dead, and how if you were going to seek them out, then you should expect them to talk to you. And Mr. Lennier, I’ve come a long way to speak to you, the least that you can do is listen.”_

When Lennier did not dismiss him, Morden continued. _“I thought, Mr. Lennier, that you might be curious to know how I knew that you were going to betray the Anla’shok.”_

Lennier gave the shadowy man a dark look. But Morden continued anyway. _“It’s simple really,”_ Morden said almost casually. _“Sheridan took away the woman I loved too. And like you, I want him dead for it.”_

The response was an automatic denial, “I didn’t want Sheridan dead.”

_“I’m sure you could have fooled him. I believe Sheridan understands you better than you understand yourself, Lennier. And you can’t fool me.”_

Morden walked over to the only other piece of furniture in the spartan room. Once he had settled himself in the simple wooden chair, he spoke. _“You wanted Sheridan dead. Even if it was only for a moment, you wanted him dead.”_

“No,” Lennier whispered, knowing even as he did so, it was a lie.

_“What if I told you, there was a way for us to both get what we want, and save the Alliance at the same time?”_

When Lennier did not respond, Morden continued. _“My former associates had allies Mr. Lennier. They want revenge and they want power. And they have discovered a way to have both. They have set the wheel in motion, so to speak, and very soon, as they think of it, they will crush the Alliance and Sheridan beneath that wheel of fire and destruction.”_

“You can not believe that I will help you or them,” Lennier replied coldly.

 _“Did I say that I wanted you to help them?”_ Morden asked.

“Then what do you want?” Lennier asked in return.

Morden suppressed a smile at the question and spoke once more. _“I want what you want Mr. Lennier; Sheridan, dead. Not for the same reasons of course, but that hardly matters. What does matter, is if you kill Sheridan for me, I will tell you what the Shadow’s allies have planned and how you can stop it, thus saving Delenn and the Alliance.”_

“And why should I believe you?”

_“I was many things in life Mr. Lennier, a liar was not one of them.”_

Lennier’s expression turned dubious upon that assertion.

Morden shrugged. _“Believe what you like Mr. Lennier, but I assure you, it is the truth.”_ He smirked slightly, _“Ask Mollari, if you don’t believe me.”_

Morden rose. _“I’ll give you a little time to think over what I’ve said.”_

And with that, the shadow man faded.

Lennier looked around the spartan room, knowing that he should find some way to leave. But he was still very weary, knowing that he had been quite close death before he had come here, wherever _‘here’_ was.

With a sigh, he lay back on the hard bed, and fell into a deep slumber…

_Sheridan pounded on the glass door heavily, his voice muffled as he called out to where Lennier stood. As the young Minbari watched, the toxic fumes began to fill the small chamber. Sheridan pounded more violently on the sealed door, coughing now as he called out for Lennier’s help._

_A part of him was horrified with himself; horrified that he was more than willing to stand aside and not only let Sheridan die, but to watch him do so. Yes, Lennier, faithful aide, noble Minbari, and true believer in Valen, was horrified. But Lennier the man, the man desperately in love with Delenn, was delighted, even ecstatic…_

Lennier woke with a gasp. He could still feel the dark elation singing through him at the thought of Sheridan dead. And though he knew that it should horrify him, and at some level it still did, Lennier couldn’t quite help but secretly enjoy the feeling.

 _“He’s served his purpose you know,”_ Morden said from the shadows of the corner of the room where he sat.

“Where are we?”

 _“We are neither here nor there, Mr. Lennier,”_ Morden shrugged. _“Does it matter?”_

“We live for the One. We die for the One,” Lennier said abruptly, trying to find strength and comfort in the words.

Morden smirked.

Lennier sat up and faced the man that he had always thought of as the enemy.

_“He has served his purpose. And which is more important Mr. Lennier, the man, or that which he has created?”_

“We live for the One. We die for the One.”

_“Which one, Mr. Lennier?”_

“We live…”

 _“Now Mr. Lennier,”_ Morden cut him off. _“Do you honestly believe that if you continue to say it, it will make it true? You have already proven that you neither live for, nor die for the One.”_

Lennier focused a moment longer on Morden before he attempted to escape the shadow man’s presence through meditation.

Morden smirked. _“As you like. I will give you some time, but be forewarned, time does not always work in expected ways here, don’t make your choice too late.”_

The Shadow representative faded back into the darkened corners of the room as Lennier took a deep breath, trying to focus his meditations. The young Minbari worked to bring his breathing into slow, even whispers, and his heartbeat to a quiet murmur. Without the conscious choice to do so, he began to focus his meditations by thinking of Delenn. And as he thought of her, his thoughts turned naturally to Sheridan as well.

Almost comfortably, his thoughts fell into familiar patterns as imagined Sheridan dead and himself with Delenn instead. With a savage kick of elation, he thought of Delenn turning to him.

_“It can be that way, Mr. Lennier,” he heard a smooth voice break into his meditations. “You can save Delenn, and be with her. You can keep her safe. You can redeem yourself in her eyes, and save the Alliance.”_

“But only by killing Sheridan?”

 _“I will tell you everything. You can stop the destruction of the Alliance with that knowledge. But only if you eliminate Sheridan, yes,”_ the shadowy man confirmed.

Slowly, Lennier opened his eyes. “Why don’t you do it yourself? Why not destroy Sheridan yourself? You want to,” Lennier murmured.

 _“I’m dead.”_ Mr. Morden replied simply.

“But I’m not,” Lennier answered, looking straight into the dark man’s eyes.

_“Precisely.”_

“I will harm no one but Sheridan,” Lennier asserted after a long dark moment.

_“As I expected.”_

“The Alliance is in danger?” The former Anla’Shok pressed.

_“Yes, Mr. Lennier; Delenn and the Alliance.”_

“And Sheridan would sacrifice his life for the good of everyone, if he knew,” Lennier rationalized.

 _“Yes,”_ Mr. Morden practically whispered, looking into the young Minbari’s desperate and yearning eyes…

* * *

**Lennier stood quietly** over the small hand carved cradle. Almost absently, he reached out a hand to softly trace the traditional carvings worked into the dark mallorean wood. Suddenly his fingers stilled as they came across something unfamiliar. With a small frown, he glanced to where his fingers had stopped, and noticed that the traditional Minbari carvings had been intertwined with other shapes that Lennier now recognized as human in origin.

Involuntarily, his hand squeezed tight as a now darkly familiar sense of disgust filled him.

 _“Even this,”_ he thought, _“even this, the human corrupts. We were following the sacred traditions when his people were still confined to their insignificant, primitive little world. He should be humbled by the knowledge that cradles like these were ancient even before Valen. Instead, he presumes to…”_

Lennier suddenly found himself looking into a pair of bright blue eyes as the small sound of the wood cracking woke David from his slumber. With something akin to surprise, the young Minbari realized the mallorean wood had cracked with hairline fractures beneath the angry pressure of his hand as he had gripped the offensive carvings.

Lennier released his grip and met the clear blue eyes of Delenn’s child, refusing to think of the baby as belonging to Sheridan, though clearly, he was partially human.

 _“Vendrosssi mei,”_ he addressed the infant, looking to the boy’s surprisingly calm and intelligent eyes. David gurgled in response.

Carefully, he reached down and lifted the infant into the cradle of his arms.

“You know, it really was too easy to reach you here,” he addressed the baby as he ran a finger lightly over David’s brow. “Too easy,” he repeated as David reached for his finger with his own small ones. “It shouldn’t have been this easy, even for me.”

Then it struck him, why it had been so easy.

“They consider you true Minbari,” Lennier whispered, almost unable to believe it. Even after the recent civil war, it was ingrained in Minbari thought to not kill one another or cause harm within their caste.

“They consider Star Killer’s son to be Minbari,” Lennier whispered in disbelief.

David cooed in response, his trusting eyes immediately reminding the ex-Ranger of Delenn.

“Your mother will be frantic,” Lennier said softly, and felt his heart constrict painfully at the worry and agony that he knew Delenn would experience.

“But I swear, in Valen’s name, that this is for the best. I have to keep her safe. And the Alliance must endure. Too many souls have walked through fire to give the Alliance life.”

Lennier sighed and bundled the infant against the chill of the twilight outside.

“If this were only about him, or how I feel, I wouldn’t do this,” he rationalized. “I could simply wait for his twenty years to be up. But this isn’t about Sheridan and I. This is about the Alliance, and I am still Anla’shok in my heart. I live for the One. I die for the One. And Sheridan, Sheridan isn’t the One.”

Lennier drew his heavy dark cloak closed about himself and the still surprisingly quiet infant and slipped out into the purple twilight of the Minbari night. And even with David cradled in his arms, it didn’t take Lennier long to make his way through the beautiful streets of Tuzanor and to the place that he had chosen.

The cool stillness of the temple welcomed the former Anla’shok as he immediately strode to the place that he had prepared for the small infant. David cooed once as Lennier placed him in the cradle, then proceeded to fall back into a quiet slumber, not even waking as Mr. Morden slipped into the almost forgotten temple of Valeria.

 _“Sheridan’s son,”_ the shadow man said unexpectedly into the stillness. His deep chuckle brought Lennier’s eyes up from his silent contemplation of the infant. _“A man will do anything for his small piece of immortality.”_

The young Minbari said nothing as he watched the figure of Mr. Morden with haunted eyes.

 _“Walk through death and fire; cling to the smallest hope,”_ the dark man murmured before finally turning to look Lennier in the eye. _“Accept the deepest betrayal.”_

“The Alliance must be saved,” Lennier replied quietly, uncertain about whether he said it to convince himself, or the shade of the Shadows.

 _“Of course,”_ Morden answered smoothly before turning back to the infant in the cradle. _“But his son; he will come for his son.”_

Lennier was silent.

 _“Amazing how he can sleep, so innocently unaware of his danger,”_ Mr. Morden said in an ebony voice.

“He is no danger,” Lennier asserted firmly.

_“He’s Sheridan’s son. He’s always in danger.”_

Lennier turned quickly, facing Morden in a fighting stance. “You will not harm Delenn’s son,” he said fiercely, his voice full of dark promise.

 _“Mr. Lennier, even should I want to, you are correct, I will not. I could not harm the child even of my vengeance desired it,”_ the darkly dressed man replied. _“But merely by virtue of who he is, Sheridan’s son is in danger.”_

Lennier relaxed slightly.

Morden smirked and stepped around Lennier to look more fully down at the peacefully sleeping child. And for a moment, an expression of almost pity flashed across his face. _“To be trapped by fate. The universe can be a very cruel place,”_ the shade murmured under his breath.

Morden’s hand slipped though the sleeping form of David Sheridan as the shade reached out to brush the baby’s brow. David stir restlessly in his sleep upon feeling the touch, but quickly stilled when Morden removed his hand.

 _“She wanted his child,”_ Morden whispered almost under his breath.

Lennier watched the former servant of the Shadows closely.

“It was Anna Sheridan,” Lennier said perceptively. “The woman you loved and Sheridan took from you.”

Morden turned to the young Minbari. _“Very good Mr. Lennier. Got it in one.”_

“Only, you never had her,” Lennier said almost vindictively, perversely taking a twisted pleasure in the fact the another man had been hurt by Sheridan in such a fashion.

Morden smiled grimly. _“I had the shadow of her,”_ he said. _“A shadow for a servant of the Shadows,”_ he continued, sounding as if he were quoting something once told to him.

He faced Lennier squarely. _“And it is more than you have ever possessed, Mr. Lennier.”_

The young Minbari gave the shadow man a dark look.

“I do not want to possess her,” he asserted.

 _“Of course, Mr. Lennier,”_ Morden said smoothly as he stepped away from the cradle.

The solemn Minbari looked down to Delenn’s sleeping child, reaching out a hand to brush the baby’s brow.

 _“But you wanted the child to be yours,”_ Morden spoke too quietly for the troubled Minbari to hear…

* * *

**He felt like** his heart had been ripped from his chest the moment he discovered that his son was missing. He wanted to scream in rage in frustration. He wanted to find whoever had taken his son, and tear them limb from limb. He had never felt such burning rage in his life.

John Sheridan gripped the shimmering data crystal in his hand so tightly that he could feel the faceted edges digging into the soft skin of his palm.

_“I can help. I can help you save your son.”_

John turned the crystal fiercely in his hand, seemingly insensate to the pain he was causing himself.

_“You have no reason to trust me, not after what has happened, I know that.”_

“No reason,” Sheridan murmured.

_“And I know that we both understand why I did what I did.”_

John turned the words over in his mind as fiercely as he turned the data crystal in his hand.

_“You have no reason to trust me, but one.”_

“Delenn,” John whispered into the stillness of his office.

_“We live for the One. We die for the One…”_

“John?” Delenn spoke quietly as she entered the Presidential office.

John looked up from his contemplation of the data crystal in his hand. He felt his heart constrict painfully as he saw his wife’s tearstained face and haunted eyes. Quickly, he rose from his chair, setting the crystal aside and moving to take Delenn in his arms.

They simply held each other then for the space of several heartbeats before John quietly pulled away. He walked back to the desk and hesitated a moment before he reached for the data crystal. Grimly, he lifted the crystal with his fingertips, feeling the warmth it had absorbed from his palm. Slowly, he turned back to his wife, twisting the data crystal in his fingers as he spoke.

“This was delivered a few moments ago.”

John held the crystal out to Delenn as she stepped forward to take it from her husband, her own warm fingers brushing his softly.

“He says he can help,” John said simply.

Delenn watched her husband’s dark eyes with her own stricken ones and John felt his soul ache and his heart bleed to see the intense pain residing there; it made his decision for him.

“I have to go alone, now, but he says that he can help.”

“John?”

John cradled Delenn’s face in his hands. “I love you, Delenn. And nothing is more important to me in this universe than you and our son.”

He kissed her then, long, sweet, and lingering. When he finally pulled away with an aching reluctance, he whispered, “You are the one I live and die for.”

Then before she could reply, or he could stop himself, John broke away and strode out the door with a firm, rapid step.

Delenn watched him go, confusion clear in her expression. For a moment, she was locked in place, feeling the echoes of her husband leaving.

“John,” she gasped as she rushed to the door and out the corridor. Desperately, she looked for her husband but saw nothing in the corridor to indicate which way John had gone.

Slowly she looked down to the crystal in her hand, her eyes dark and pensive. With a last glance down the corridor, Delenn walked back into the office. Deftly, she placed the crystal in the waiting port of the vid screen.

 _“…They are the last servants of the Shadows,”_ Lennier’s image spoke, his face solemn and grim. _“They’ve taken your son because they want to take the place of the Shadows…”_

Delenn watched the data crystal with an aching heart and eyes stinging with unshed tears.

 _“I can help. I can help you save your son. Come alone to the temple of Valeria that is on the end of Tuzanor,”_ Lennier instructed in his message.

 _“You have no reason to trust me, not after what has happened, I know that,”_ the young Minbari said carefully. _“And I know that we both understand why I did what I did.”_

 _“You have no reason to trust me, but one,”_ he said with all apparent sincerity. _“We live for the One. We die for the One…”_

Delenn watched in quiet disbelief and horror as the message played itself out. She was certain that Lennier did not know everything that his message contained. And as she watched the crystal, there was a part of her that wished that she didn’t know either.

Her former aide was haloed in a dark wash of light, like wavering shadows embracing his form. A few tendrils of shadow reached out from the lost Anla’shok’s still form to weave with the surrounding darkness. And shimmering hazily in the background behind Lennier, was the shade of Morden…

* * *

**John slipped into** the dusty temple in the early twilight of evening. Shimmering starlight flittered down to crystalline floors through brightly colored, but damaged stained glass windows. Shattered glass triluminaries glittered on the floor, the remains of white candles still visible within. And a sparkling layer of dust covered everything, filling the air as John stepped deeper into the almost forgotten temple of Valeria.

“President Sheridan,” Lennier said as he stepped out from the amber half shadows.

John watched as the young Minbari walked toward him. He was all darkness, from his ebony clothes, to his night dark cloak with its hood pulled up, obscuring his face. He held his den’bok loose in his hand and walked like a man that was used to living in the shadows.

“Mr. Lennier,” John replied almost warily.

“You’re thinking that this is a trap,” Lennier observed as he slipped the hood of his cloak back with his free hand.

“The thought has crossed my mind,” Sheridan admitted.

“Then why did you come?” Lennier asked carefully.

“Because you have been an honorable man Mr. Lennier, and you love Delenn as much as I do. You would never see her hurt,” Sheridan replied, realizing even as he said this, that it was indeed a trap. Disappointment filled him. John remembered the eager young aide, and the steady young man that had supported Delenn when they ministered to the Markab. He remembered the man that had walked with them through the fire of the Shadow War and all that followed.

John remembered that man, and knew that that man was gone, at least as he had once been.

With a soft sound, the den’bok in Lennier’s hand opened.

“Where is my son?”

“He is safe,” the young Minbari assured him. “After…” he hesitated, his voice breaking slightly. “He is safe and will be back with Delenn soon, unharmed. I swear this to you, for her sake.”

“You don’t have to do this, Lennier.”

Lennier shifted his position, falling instinctively into a fighting stance. As he did so, John reached for his PPG.

Suddenly, Lennier was a dark blur as he knocked the weapon from John’s hand, breaking it in the process. John stumbled back with an expression of pain.

“President Sheridan,” Lennier said calmly. “I know that you will not understand, but you must die. Only through your death, the Alliance will live… only then will Delenn be safe.”

The young Minbari turned dark lost eyes toward John who clutched his broken left hand in his right.

“We found your things Lennier,” John admitted then. “Your journal entries.”

“This isn’t about that,” the young Minbari insisted.

“Then what is it about?” John asked, his teeth gritted against his pain, even as he looked for a way out of his situation.

“We defeated the Shadows, but we both know that their servants were left behind. They seek to replace their masters. And you are the key to their plans,” Lennier explained before his expression became closed.

“You have to die, but it need not be in pain,” he said with almost uncharacteristic coldness.

“Lennier,” John began to say before the determined Minbari interrupted him by quickly swinging out the den’bok.

John dodged a blow that skimmed so close that he felt the breeze of its passing.

“You don’t want to do this, Lennier,” John insisted, looking for an opening to somehow disarm his opponent. “Come back with me. We can talk about this; you, me, and Delenn.”

“No,” the former Anla’shok replied simply as he swung out once more, barely missing with a blow intended to crack ribs.

“All right, all right,” John said in a placating voice. “But why do you think that I’m a key to the Shadow servants plans? What have you discovered?” He asked carefully.

 _“Enough Lennier; end this. He’s just trying to save himself at the expense of the Alliance…of Delenn,”_ the unseen shade of Morden said from the amber shadows. _“He would rather see the Alliance fall than sacrifice for it as Delenn has…as you have… as the Minbari have.”_

It was enough to drive Lennier forward. “Too many have died and suffered because of you and the humans,” the young Minbari hissed. “I will not see you live at the expense of the Alliance or Delenn.”

The ferocity of the former Anla’shok’s sudden attack was stunning. Soon, John had collapsed, falling in on himself and coughing blood.

Then through a welter of blood, John finally saw a glimpse of a wavering shadow standing behind Lennier bearing a triumphant and smug expression.

“Morden?” John gasped.

Lennier suddenly stopped his attack, an expression of surprise coming across his face. “You see him?” the former Ranger asked, his voice full of dread and some measure of surprise.

Through a haze of deathly pain, John looked from Lennier, to the shade, and back again.

 _“Kill him Lennier,”_ Morden commanded, his voice muffled, but now heard by John as well. _“He only sees me because he is close to death. You’ve almost got what you want. Don’t falter now Mr. Lennier; in his death is your redemption and the continuation of all that Delenn has worked and sacrificed herself for.”_

“Delenn,” John gasped, his eyes distant. “Lennier, if…” he gasped, spitting blood. “If my death means that my son will live…Watch over him, keep him safe…And Delenn…”

Lennier stood above John, his den’bok held loosely in his hand. Suddenly the immediate stillness of the temple was shattered by the sound of the pike hitting crystalline floors. A small glittering of dust filled the air where the den’bok had dropped.

 _“Lennier… Lennier, this is what you want,”_ Morden insisted.

“No…” the young Minbari murmured, his gaze turning to the temple doors. “Delenn…”

John looked back as best he could, but couldn’t see what Lennier could so clearly see there.

 _“There’s nothing there Lennier,”_ Mr. Morden insisted. _“Nothing… your destiny lies there. Kill Sheridan! Then all that you want will be yours…”_

Suddenly, David cried in the cradle that he was hidden in near the temple banners and altar. Lennier looked in the direction of the high infant wail, then back to the still closed temple doors.

 _“Lennier…”_ Morden practically growled. _“She’s not really there.”_

The former Anla’shok looked in the shade’s direction briefly, then without another glance in either Morden’s or Sheridan’s direction, the young Minbari walked toward the entrance.

John made no move to stop him, and instead crawled painfully in the direction of his son’s cries.

 _“Lennier…”_ Morden practically growled.

Lennier knelt. “Forgive me, Delenn,” he gasped. “There is no redemption for me in this life, my only hope is that we may meet again in the next, and I will be a better man for having been loved by you in this one.”

Morden roared in frustration, his customarily calm mien shattered by a mask of rage as the sudden sound of PPG shot rang through the temple, followed by a sickening thud.

John closed his eyes briefly.

 _“Sheridan,”_ Morden growled. _“I know that you can hear me. Know this… your son is doomed. I would have helped Lennier to save him. I keep my promises. But now… your son is doomed and I will see you in Hell.”_

The shade faded, even as John continued his slow, painful crawl to his son. As he finally reached the cradle, he heard sounds and the calls of the Rangers at the temple doors.

“We’re in here,” he called as loudly as he could in a cracked voice before passing into inevitable darkness…

* * *

**John woke late** in the night to an empty bed and a room quiet but for his son’s soft breathing. Slowly, his body still aching, he rose. As quietly as he could, he walked to David’s cradle and brushed his fingers softly along his son’s brow before leaving the room.

“Delenn,” he said softly, walking to where his wife sat before a single lit candle. “You should get some rest. I’ll stay here.”

“He was a good man.”

John was silent a moment. “He was,” he said in quiet reassurance. He reached over and brushed back her dark hair. “Get some rest, love.”

Delenn looked over to her husband with haunted, dark eyes. Softly, she held a hand to his stubbled cheek. “I could have lost you and our son.”

“Delenn…”

 _"Li'faa cha'du miya,”_ she murmured after a moment.

 

 _"Li'faa cha'du miya,_ Delenn. Go… sleep now.”

Slowly, Delenn rose, brushing her hand softly along John’s arm and returning to their bedroom.

John watched her go before turning his attention back to the softly glowing candle.

“You were a good man, Lennier, because she loved you. I know, because I’m a good man for being loved by her.” He took a deep breath. “I hope you finally found peace Lennier, and I really do hope that we meet again… I… good journey my friend…”

_**FIN** _


End file.
